


Surprise

by thing_a_ma_gig



Series: universal truths [2]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Angst, Brio - Freeform, F/M, Rio POV, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, i just really like his pov, soulmate au where their name is written on your wrist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 21:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19472698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thing_a_ma_gig/pseuds/thing_a_ma_gig
Summary: 11:59.It's the longest minute of Rio's life. He stares, unblinking, at his wrist, torn between wanting a name to appear and praying one doesn't. The seconds slip by, at once too fast and too slow.He blinks and her name is there. Elizabeth Irene Marks wraps all the way around his wrist like a cuff. Rio marvels at her name, at her neat signature that almost looks like a font. He gives himself one more moment before he clasps on his dad's old watch. No one could ever know.





	Surprise

Rio's friends tease him mercilessly in the weeks leading up to his 18th birthday. He can't go a minute without one of them making a kissy face at him or trying to predict whose name will appear on his wrist. Even worse, they joke about how he'll go soft the moment midnight rolls around. 

His siblings aren't much better, constantly screeching out love poems or how excited they are to have nieces and nephews. Rio tries to tame them for his mom's sake, but it's useless. They weren't old enough to remember their father before he died, or how part of mom died with him. 

"Mijo." she cups his face like she used to do when he was younger. 

"Mamá…" Rio whines half-heartedly. 

"Cherish every moment with your soulmate. You never know when you won’t have any more time together." She takes in a shuddering breath and Rio gathers her into his arms and tucks her head under his chin. He doesn't remember when she got so much smaller than him. 

Rio is the oldest in his friend group and none of them know how to act the day before his 18th birthday. Usuallly on weekends they dick around and hang out, but an awkward, excited energy hangs in the air. Rio can't hold a conversation to save his life and his friends jokes all fall flat. He ends up ducking out early. He can't be around them right now. He's too hyped up to sit still but too distracted to play basketball. 

Rio spends the rest of the day trying to waste time until midnight. He tries to lay down and sleep, hoping to burn a few hours that way, but he ends up just staring at his left wrist for an hour. He reads but doesn't understand a word on the page and gives up when his eyes stray to the clock for the millionth time. He watches TV, he goes for a run, he cleans, he gets so desperate he does his fucking homework. Nothing helps. 

He finally gives up and curls up on his bed after dinner to avoid the stares and chatter of his family. He lets his mind run wild with all the hopes and fears that have built up over the past month. Rio always has a plan for everything that could go wrong, and three more back-up plans just in case. But he doesn't know what to do if he has a soulmate. He doesn't know if he should try and track his soulmate down, drag them into all the shit he'd gotten himself into, or let them live their life. 

Rio’d joined the gang years ago. At first it was just a way to help his mom make ends meet and feed four hungry mouths, but then he realized he's good at it. Really good. Skilled and smart enough to already have his own territory and his own crew. And his own enemies. A soulmate would complicate everything. Give him one more weakness for someone to exploit. 

A weakness that he’d used against too many people to count. No one folded so fast as when their soulmate was threatened.

11:59. 

It's the longest minute of Rio's life. He stares, unblinking, at his wrist, torn between wanting a name to appear and praying one doesn't. The seconds slip by, at once too fast and too slow. 

He blinks and her name is there. _Elizabeth Irene Marks_ wraps all the way around his wrist like a cuff. Rio marvels at her name, at her neat signature that almost looks like a font. He gives himself one more moment before he clasps on his dad's old watch. No one could ever know. 

She will never be used against him. Rio won’t allow it. 

Maria, Daniel, and Eric all burst through his door screaming ‘Feliz Cumpleaños’ at the top of their lungs. Eric starts jumping on him in excitement. 

"Let us see! Let us see!" Maria squeals as she grabs for his arm. 

"Oye, gordito, get off!" Rio easily picks up Eric and drops the seven year old unceremoniously on the end of the bed. "Maria! Stop!" he easily shakes her and Daniel’s small hands off. 

"C’mon, why not?" She gives him puppy dog eyes and Rio just laughs, "Was Luis right? Is it Ms. Martinez?" 

"It's personal." She opens her mouth to retort but their mom calls them for breakfast. 

"Christopher." She leans against the counter, a bit of flour dusting her arm. 

"Mamá." she stops him as he passes and runs a hand over the watch, her soulmates watch. "I just want to keep her safe." Her eyes scan his face with an unreadable expression. 

"Keep yourself safe, too, mijo," she presses a kiss to his forehead, "Hurry up, before they eat all the pancakes." 

Rio knows his mom isn't dumb. He knows she sees the bloody knuckles and occasional black eye. She knows where he goes late at night and why he comes home with cash. But she hasn't said anything because she's also smart enough to know there's no way he can get out now, and she'll just be wasting her breath. 

School rolls back around and Rio lies to his friends and says no name appeared. They tease him ruthlessly and call him ‘desalmado’ or crack jokes about how he's lying because they were right about Ms. Martinez. Life goes back to normal, the only big change being the watch he wears everywhere. It's not uncommon for people to want to hide their soulmate's name. Some do it because they believe it's a private thing and others out of grief from a lost soulmate. 

It takes two weeks before Rio has a chance to look up his soulmate. He has to take a two hour bus ride to go to the library downtown to do any serious research. Finally, he manages to beg out of babysitting for one weekend and his friends are all doing other stuff. It takes him hours to find even one Elizabeth Irene Marks, but she's already married _.  _

_ Congratulations to Dean Barry Boland and Elizabeth Irene Marks on their happy nuptials!  _ They look happy in the photo and Rio finds himself going back to it again and again. They had gotten married only a few months before. A spring wedding. She has a beautiful dress and a smile that lights up her entire face. 

He finds more Elizabeth Irene Bolands but something about this Elizabeth draws him in. Something about her is just a little bit past his understanding. 

Slowly, Rio understands. Her soulmate is Dean Barry Boland. They're mis-matched. He thought it was just a myth, but he can't deny the way looking at her makes his heart squeeze or the marriage or the way she beams in all the photos he can find of her. 

Rio doesn't understand why he even searched for her. He didn't want to drag her into the shit he stirred up or weigh her down with all his baggage. He feels pathetic for feeling betrayed. They had no future together, no matter how much a part of him wished it wasn't true.

Selfishly, he keeps tabs on her through the years. It’s dangerous. Anyone could catch him and make the link with small jumps in reasoning. He watches Elizabeth Irene Marks – no, Boland – have a life and a family with a man that isn't him. He notices when an obit pops up for her mom, watches all four birth announcements come and go, even keeps an eye on Boland Motors. 

He makes a name for himself in the crime world, staking out his own territory and expanding his business until he is king. Not even his top men know about Elizabeth. Rio knows that they can't be trusted to not flip on him, to not sell out to the highest bidder. 

Knowledge is power in organized crime. More important than any gun or piece of turf. 

Rio is furious when someone hits one of his fronts. One of his more lucrative fronts, no less. He's itching to get his hands on whatever bottom feeders didn't get the memo. And if it was someone from West side… 

Rio has been preparing for this fight for a while. 

It takes longer than usual to find the guy that did it. He would expect someone dumb enough to rob his Fine and Frugal would also be dumb enough to go on a spending spree. So when one of his guys pulls him away from the main floor, he's more than a little pissed. 

"And? Who did it?" Cisco glances away but Rio doubles down and glares harder. It shouldn't take this damn long to find some dumbass. 

"It's a group. Some suburban bitches probably looking for a thrill." Rio is surprised for the first time in a while. 

"Ok, where they at?" 

"We couldn't find all of them, only the ring leader Elizabeth Boland." Rio's stomach drops and icy fear pulses in his veins. 

"Case her house. Keep me updated and don't do anything until I say so. We clear?" Cisco nods and Rio heads up to his office to think. 

What had she done? Why is she stealing? How is Rio supposed to handle this? 

He can't leave it up to one of his guys, it wasn't like him to not micromanage every detail of an operation. Something like this will require special attention by him. And what if one of his guys oversteps? What if they hurt her? 

And then there's that little voice in him that wants to see her. Not from across the park or from a photo. Just the thought makes his heart pound, and he finds himself fiddling with his watch for the rest of the day. 

Rio doesn't know what he was expecting when he meets her. Maybe more tears, more panic, more pleading for her life. But Elizabeth Irene Boland calmly calls her friends and says that there is a situation and then sits, back straight, while they wait. Smart. 

Rio can feel her eyes on him as he paces around her living room, making the odd comment about the decor. He studies her, too, how she doesn't even fidget, how her expression is a nervous sort of attentive, how her left wrist is covered by a watch. 

It's electric to be in the same room as her. He wasn't expecting to be so enamored by her after only a short time, after not even talking to each other more than a few sentences. 

He wonders what she thinks of him. It's a childish thought, Rio knows, but he can't help wondering what she thinks after only a few minutes together. 

Elizabeth's partners-in-crime burst through the door in a chaotic mass, a stark contrast to her quiet, calculating gaze. 

"Beth! Oh my god! What–" the short blonde – Annie. Rio recognizes her from the many Facebook photos of family outings – starts. 

"Take a seat, ladies." Rio says and both girls scream. Elizabeth silences them with a glance and they squash themselves all on the same loveseat. 

So. They call her Beth. And even though she's mostly quiet, Elizabeth seems to be the point. She's strong, too, holding her ground even when Rio points a gun to her face. 

The safety is on, but she doesn’t need to know that. 

When Rio and the boys roll up a second time, she's silent, letting Annie and Ruby make nervous remarks about the weather while she studies him yet again. Annie even starts a stuttering story of when her kid was little and broke her arm on a swing set. 

It's good that she’s quiet, because Rio wouldn't be able to stop his eyes from traveling to the miles of pale skin exposed by her dark, low v-neck or to the snug watch maddeningly covering her left wrist. 

He doesn't know why he wants to look so badly. Just to make sure it's Dean Barry Boland written across her wrist, to make sure it's not blank, to make sure his name isn't written there.

Cisco shakes his head after he counts the money. Rio nods and his boys get to work on setting the scene. He pretends to scroll through his phone, but they aren't really in any danger. They just need a little push until someone coughs up a retirement fund or college savings. He would never kill Elizabeth, no matter how dumb she is to short him and then expect ebay and a few dolls to cover her ass. 

Time drags on and Rio starts to doubt that she even is his soulmate. How could the woman of his dreams be dumb enough to pull shit like this, to steal from a grocery store just for fun? How could the woman of his dreams be docile enough to let someone else take point?

"You're an idiot" Rio jerks his head up at Elizabeth’s words. It sends his heart to his throat to see Cisco with his gun to her temple but Rio pushes his fear down. 

Elizabeth Irene Marks won't go down without a fight. No, not his soulmate. 

She lists all the ways she’s different from the other guys he’s shot for shorting him. Rio listens, humoring her for a few minutes. She’s smart to use her status as a suburban white lady to save herself. Rio thinks of all the suburban white guys who’ve sat in her same spot and only begged for their lives.

They had it coming, though. Already under investigation for all of the shit he had them doing and threatening to roll over on him. They were rotten eggs. No one batted an eye when they turned up dead. She just robbed the wrong grocery store. 

And Elizabeth is his soulmate. Rio could never hurt her.

He shows up at her house the next day, coming in the same squeaky back gate that she needed to get a new lock for. Her kid is sitting at the picnic table, hunched over some homework.

“Hey, kid, is your mama home?” He startles and turns around.

“Who are you?” The kid looks at him in confusion. He looks a lot like his dad.

“I’m her… work friend.”

“My mom doesn’t have a job.” That explains why she had to rob a store.

“It’s a pretty new business, we’re still ironing out all the details.” The lie is easy and the kid is too trusting to question it. Rio hopes their school is better at teaching english than they are at teaching stranger danger.

“If you’re her business partner, can you help me with my math homework?” Rio smiles and sits on the table. He can’t help but wonder if this is how their life could have been. Him helping their kids with homework before dinner.

It was an idiotic idea to come here, one of his worst, but Rio was so drawn to her. He wants to see her smile and see her blush and see her in one of those mama sweaters again that left so much to the imagination.

He gives her a once over as soon as she’s in view and loves how off balance he makes her. He loves the way her chest pops out, like she’s trying to put on a tough front even though he can see the fear in her eyes. Rio wants to lean down and run his lips over the blush on her chest, see how far it goes, see if the drapes match the carpet.

It was a mistake to show up at her house like this. Alone. No one to keep him honest.

It’s an even bigger mistake to make a deal with her and crack a door into the criminal world. Rio can’t help himself, though. He wants to see her. Even if it puts her in more danger. Even if it puts him in danger.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I was really conflicted about posting more Brio because the finale definitely ruined it for me so I'm just gonna pretend it didnt happen and maybe write like it didnt happen That Way.  
> mijo=my son  
> feliz cumpleanos=happy birthday  
> gordito=fatty  
> desalmado=soulless  
> Thanks for reading!!!


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